PESHAWAR, April 24: The NWFP health department has decided to initiate a drive against quacks, unregistered medical practitioners as well as illegal and misleading healthcare advertisements in the province , says an official handout issued here.

The decision, it said, was taken during a meeting held under the provincial health minister here on Saturday.

The meeting was also participated by secretary health Dr Ihsanul Haq and director-general, health, Dr Jalilur Rehman.

A team was formed to conduct raids on quacks, unregistered clinics and sub-standard laboratories.

The team is being headed by the provincial secretary health while the director-general, health, and drug inspector are its members. The team would be authorized to seal fake and unregistered health centres besides registering cases against illegal institutions and persons involved in such practices.

The handout said that participants of the meeting said that initially raids would be conducted in Peshawar but later the scope of these raids would gradually be extended to cover the entire province.

It decided to remove all illegal, unethical and misleading wall-chalking from the city immediately, besides initiating action against firms and persons concerned in this regard.

The meeting also ordered the EDO, health, Peshawar, to chalk out a strategy for launching an effective drive in the city.